Dorner: Vigilante or deviant?

Vendetta, Punisher, Robin Hood, Christopher Dorner? Like many, these past few weeks, I was submerged in a culture I was only familiar with in movies.

Christopher Dorner was one vigilante trying to make his agenda known against the corrupt government.

Whatever this agenda could have been will forever be unknown. Dorner died in a standoff with law enforcement in mid-February.

Dorner was an ex Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer who was terminated for making “false allegations” against his superiors.

He wrote a manifesto, with claims of several injustices he witnessed while on duty.

My opinion is unpopular with the majority of people.

In fact when I first told classmates about the situation including the manifesto in Dorner’s own words, they said he was “crazy.”

If Dorner played his cards right, and what was written in his Manifesto is indeed fact, then he will be largely known as a vigilante with a “noble” cause instead of being seen as a murderous sociopath. This case is similar to the movie “Law Abiding Citizen.” In the movie a man who has lost his family to a violent murder, turns around and murders everyone that had something to do with the case years later.

The audience believes in the message, yet is conflicted by the methods of the main character. Specifically killing innocent people.

Was Dorner a “thug?” Not in my eyes.

Was he a “hero?” No.

But what he was and what he will be remembered for is a man who wanted to clear his name, and a man who was desperate to see change.

I can see why this man was upset, according to him members of the LAPD made him out to be a misfit, and when he took the trials of fellow officers to the courts, he was terminated.

It’s hard to say who to agree with.

However, if there is evidence of officers hurting people who are already down, handcuffed, or are unable to put up resistance, shouldn’t someone say something? Shouldn’t something be done?

According to Dorner someone should, and he did.

To be hit with a termination only a few months after and to be labeled derogatory terms because he “snitched” on his colleagues must have been revolting to him.